Launch
Pennsylvania was launched on August 15, 1872. The event was considered of such significance that—in an era of the 12-hour day and six day working week—a half day holiday was declared for the entire city of Philadelphia and the surrounding area. Piers, buildings and ships, including Pennsylvania herself, were decorated with patriotic bunting and flags of every description, and a vast crowd of sightseers thronged every available vantage point along the river, while others watched from the hundreds of boats large and small, many of which had been rented out as excursion vessels for the occasion. At 10:12 am, William Cramp gave the order to cut the stays, and Pennsylvania slid down the ways and into the Delaware River to "the cheers of a vast throng, the blowing of a hundred steam whistles, and a salvo of artillery."
It would be many more months, however, before the ship was ready for service. Difficulties in obtaining castings for the engines added to the existing delays, and consequently the ship's trials were not held until the week of May 3, 1873. After a 48-hour speed-and-economy trial of the ship's engines along the Delaware River, Pennsylvania's performance was declared satisfactory, and she was handed over to her new owners.
Read more about this topic: SS Pennsylvania (1872)
Famous quotes containing the word launch:
“Now launch the small ship, now as the body dies
and life departs, launch out, the fragile soul
in the fragile ship of courage, the ark of faith
with its store of food and little cooking pans
and change of clothes,”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“I had often stood on the banks of the Concord, watching the lapse of the current, an emblem of all progress, following the same law with the system, with time, and all that is made ... and at last I resolved to launch myself on its bosom and float whither it would bear me.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)